Whispers In The Wind
by Nari-sama
Summary: ATL sequel! If you love someone you have to believe them...no matter how much they lie...and everyday might be spent lying to yourself because if you love someone you can’t let them fade away. YAOI Tala/Max Rei/Kai
1. Chapter 1

Hello hello welcome back my dear readers for the long awaited (for me anyway lol) second installment of ATL.

This one will be darker and explore the different relationships the boys have with each other.

**Disclaimer:** No don't own Beyblade...I do own the plot though

**ATL 2: Whispers In The Wind  
Chapter 1 Searching Without Direction**

_Why do I keep searching?  
It's a question I've always asked myself  
I needed something to occupy my time  
To keep a hold on the last of my sanity  
Nothing means anything anymore  
Except to try and save it  
I refuse to lose and stumble in the dark_

_Stop asking so much of me all the time  
I'm too tired to answer you anymore  
It means nothing to me now  
All the memories were forgotten long ago  
Though I can't say forgiven_

_It our choices that decide our destiny  
Stop saying everything is already decided  
Nothing is over til you say it's over  
So someone lift me up please  
I feel so old, my mind is so weary  
With the pressure placed on my shoulders  
To do so well_

_It never ends  
This feeling of failure  
Ever searching for perfection  
It's driving me crazy  
I can always see there's a light  
At the end of this dark tunnel  
That doesn't mean I'll survive  
And before I know it I'm losing it_

_The deeper I dig the more I get buried  
Why is it I have to drown before I can swim?  
Leave before this heartache turns to anger  
Touch the fire and see if you don't get burned  
Because when I'm involved  
There's always a black cloud overhead_

_...Kai..._

_'KAI!' Rei screamed out as the two mask clad men grabbed hold of him from behind...pressing guns hard into his back as they tried to pull him off the sidewalk and into their car._

_'Rei...' Kai yelled pulling out the pistol he kept in the back of his waist band and managed to get off three shots into one of the bastards' chest before Rei was thrown onto the back seat of their sedan. _

_Kai kept an eye on Rei, blood was running down from a gash in his forehead where one of the men had pistol whipped the young Chinese man in the face with the barrel of his gun and his left arm looked like it was broken. His golden eyes were pleading at him as he fought against the man._

_'REI!' Kai screamed his lungs out running as fast as he could and shooting at the car as it sped away right in front of him.  
_

Another dream...

I sighed and looked around hurriedly, it's happened so many times recently there not any real reason to be panicking like I do.

Luckily when I woke up I was still on the train, sometimes I wouldn't be surprised if I woke up in another prefecture heh... I blacked out once on the Shinkansen from Kyushu and ended up on the Tokyo loop line missing 20,000 yen and my shoes.

Tala still hasn't contacted me yet, I rang Max the other day and gave him the number for BEGA. For some reason lately my nightmares have been getting worse, it's almost as if the closer I get the more intense they get...for last four months the only thing I've dreaming about finding Rei's killer.

Right now I'm in Shinjuku heading back to my usual bar. The BEGA's a little run down but it's off the radar for the most part and serves half decent vodka and whiskey so for now that's good enough for me hell sometimes Wyatt, the bartender, he lets me sleep in one of the back store rooms so who am I to complain?

**&&&**

_...Tala_...

I opened my eyes tiredly, the unfortunate truth is it's not the first time I'd fallen asleep at my desk and mostly likely won't be anywhere close to the last. I yawned, stretching my arms out above my head feeling my spine uncomfortably click back into place.

I pressed the button down on my answering machine and it made a loud beeping sound...too loud for this early in the mourning '1 new message 5:55 am' the damn stupid thing announced and Max's soft voice filtered through the answering machine speakers.

_'Hey...Tala, you didn't come home last...again...just so you know Kai rang...when you get this call me'_ god he sounded about as tired as I felt.

I look over at clock on my computer 6:15 am, urgh that means I've only had...about...3 hours sleep damn...I don't even remember going to sleep.

I sighed, Max should understand I that I had to get my article in by midnight if I had any chance of making the mourning addition, as it was I stayed up because I still had by essay to finished on top of that.

"Ibanobu you still here?" some ass called out from the doorway across the bullpen...the damn asshole can never pronounce my name right "Go home moron your paid by piece not the hour!" urgh...it's that bastard Misaki...he's ten years older than me but he'd only been here four years longer than I have.

He thinks he deserves a Nobel Prize just because he worked as a foreign correspondent to the Middle East for the NHK, please he was in Jerusalem for two months before he was shipped back...there wasn't even any bombings at the time...he also thinks he can slack off on the quality of his journalism now that he's sleeping with Airi Miyamoto in the editorial department...most of the time I just want to smack him in the head and not with my good arm either.

"Yeah I'm just going home Misaki-san" I said to him the false politeness I normally use seeping through my voice hopefully instead of the sarcasm I so desperately want to use on that smug bastard.

"Good I see you enough as it is" Misaki quipped, really if only he wasn't a senior columnist I would be throwing him out of the window so fast his taupe would fly off.

Once he's left the room I let my smile drop my face returning to it's default annoyed frown, gah it's hurts my face so much to keep it in place, and started packing up my things - not that I had many thing at my desk this was only a part-time gig because I'm in college still.

By the time I got off the subway train home it was peak hour in the stations damn salarymen commuters pushing forward hurrying to get to work...honestly I felt like a salmon swimming up stream against the current to spawn...not that I would want to spawn or anything it was just a good analogy ok.

As soon as I got through the front door of the matchbox one bedroom apartment Max and I own I toed off my shoes and hung my messenger bag and jacket by the door before kicking that stupid door shut and collapsing face first into the soft cushions of our couch.

I have the apartment all to myself the next ten hours, Max has Med School in the morning's and then goes off to work until seven as an office junior.

Sometimes I really regret moving to Tokyo.

I don't know that many people...if Kai hadn't done a disappearing act on me I could hanging out with him. If Rei hadn't been kidnapped then maybe Kai would still be here, still in college studying to be a vet, still in control...

Nikolai had been silent the last couple of years and it was all thanks to Rei, without him Kai couldn't stay in control though he tried even going to a psychiatrist didn't help keep the bastard at bay and it wasn't long before Kai started smoking and drinking.

Heh...not that I can complain...I never a very good role model, he probably learnt all his present coping methods from me.

So yeah I can't really complain now can I...

**TBC**


	2. Truth is a Matter of Perception

**Well well its up to chapter two! WITW is finally coming along...I was going to reintroduce Max in this one but I wanted this to be about Rei and Kai.  
**

**Anyway I would like to thank all you folks who crossed over from ATL and decided to read WITW as well. **

**Yeah Suzanne thanks for the review, heh lol will Rei be saved by the boys mhuahaha he wouldn't want anyone to think he's a damsel in distress O.x'  
**

**Disclaimer:** No I don't own Beyblade!

**ATL 2: Whispers In The Wind  
Chapter 2** Truth is a Matter of Perception

_Staring down at my floor  
I hear a knock at the door  
Who can it be now?  
All I want is to be alone  
Why can't they see that?  
In one day my whole life has been  
Swept out from under me_

_Everything I was trained and tortured to be  
Was equivalent to nothing  
If the weak die and strong survive  
Than why are there so many weak  
It was what I was taught  
But if that was a lie  
So, how much of everything else  
That was hammered into me was as well  
Is anyone telling the truth anymore?  
Or am I the one lying to myself_

_...Rei..._

Everything hurt...down to my bones, now that I think about my right arm does feel broken but I'm too exhausted to think about it when everything else hurts as well.

The days even the weeks blend together and I can hardly remember what happen yesterday or if I've been held here for 6 days or 6 months. I try not to think about Kai, how he must feel probably thinking I'm dead or something after they sent my ear to Max. He'll understand though why I'm doing this...

Normally they'll interrogate me for a few hours and then leave me lying in the hole for the rest of the time. This time though that red haired bitch left me tied up...after she beat the crap out of me that is, she just left me here handcuffed as I hung from the end of a rope attached to the ceiling while I support my weight on the top of a two-legged chair...unfortunately I lost the chair after a good fifteen minutes and she used me like a pinata.

I've been hanging here for about three hours but I don't have a watch with me so you might not wanna put any trust in my perception of time.

The door creaked open and a short blonde guy walked in, I've seem him once before I think his name's Jim...eh what a stupid ass name...anyway he was smirking like always his stupid froggy face contorted in that disgusting expression.

"Heh really did a number on ya, Salima must be really pissed today" his flat cold voice drifted inside. He really should stop trying so hard I mean really he looks like twelve year old playing dress up and if I didn't probably have bruised ribs I would laugh my ass off at him and his evil midget get up.

There was also the fact that I also don't want to get my jaw broken as well, Goki is stood outside cracking his knuckles threateningly like he could possibly intimidate me after what they've already done.

"I've already... told you I don't know... any of those people... it's been six months come on... haven't I've told all I can" I called out breathily, six months of torture gives you enough motive to learn how to lie through your teeth.

"Well I don't really give a shit" the bastard said "I'm only here to kick you back down the hole you crawled out of" he nodded to the giant behind him "Goki cut the cocksucker down, we've got another one coming here in a few minutes".

I felt the rope give way only because I fell down, my arms were completely numb from lack of blood supply except for the break in my arm.

I only closed my eyes for what felt like a few seconds though when I opened them again I was back in the dank rat hole myself and sometimes other prisoners were held, my hand were secured to the floor with heavy iron chains.

"You are back young Rei I was wondering if they had just given up and decided to kill you already" someone said to my right, I remember after a breath moment of panic...it was a middle aged man they'd thrown in here a week ago, he'd said his name was Damian.

"Yeah..." I grunted but I need to talk, I been here long enough to know a lot of way to distract myself from pain most of which I can't repeat.

There had been something I'd been wondering about since he'd first decided to talk to me.

"Your accent?" I asked curiously as I lent my head back against the damp brick wall trying to forget about the throbbing all over my body.

"What about it...?" the old man questioned, a wary tone in his voice.

"It's Russian isn't it" I said closing my eyes for a little bit.

"Quite an ear you've got there kid" he joked, his hollow laughter echoing of the walls "If I didn't know any better I'd say you'd been to the Mother Land but you said you're from Hong Kong and only moved to Japan five years ago hmm what a mystery...a mystery indeed..."

I sat up straight thinking 'How the hell?'.

"Da! Da! Now I can tell, before you moved to Hong Kong you lived the first few years of your life in a remote region of Canton" Damian continued "If you're trying to hide who you are, it's would be best to loose the distinct accent...I used to work in the Army...easiest thing to spot a spy by is his accent, peh Americans could never get the infliction right, the English now they were good...anyway the moral of this story is that you lived with someone from Russia someone young like you yes...the influence would be more distinct if he were older"

"You got all of that from just listening to my voice...no way man" This is getting kinda freaky ever he's psychic or he just really has a knack for this stuff, he is kind of amusing sometimes but I was still suspicious about why anyone would try to strike up a conversation with a stranger when we're both locked in a dank dimly lit prison cell while being chained to the floor.

"It comes with the territory I've been hiding who I really was for so long now, it has been sixteen years since I have ever been that man sixteen long years" he sighed tiredly.

**&&&**

_...Kai..._

I pushed open to banged up door not really caring that it was already hanging off its hinges. I was in a hurry to get inside...I checked behind me, damn nothing, I had been sure that someone was following me.

Wyatt greeted me with a cheerful smile as he pulled out a fresh bottle of Vodka from under the bar he'd been standing at wiping glasses. I sat down on a stall accepting the shot he offered me, sniffing it before I gulped what I assume is alcohol down.

"Hi Kai I hadn't been expecting you in this early" he said trying to make small talk, I just grunted in reply. It was then that something caught my eye, a guy was sitting at a table by himself in the corner of room. I hadn't noticed him at first when I entered BEGA, he was about my age with spiky dark blue hair he would have looked classy if he hadn't worn a tattered green polo shirt and thread bare cream jeans to be honest he looked homeless not that I'm one to speak.

"Who's the guy over there in the corner?" I asked nodding over my left shoulder, lowering my voice.

"Oh that's Kane always comes in around this time, he's usually gone just before you come in" Wyatt whispered as he poured me another drink.

I had a weird feeling about him and don't know whether it's bad or good. I tighten my scarf around my neck looking over again at him, this time 'Kane' stared back at me and waved in my direction almost like he was looking me up and down.

The way he was staring at me was not exactly reassuring, if I see him again I might have to move base.

He walks over and casually lent against the bar next to me clutching a glass of scotch in his hand.

"Like what you see?" Kane asked cockily a grin plastered on his lightly tanned face.

"Not really" I replied looking back towards Wyatt.

"The name's Yamashita Kane, what's yours honey?" he offered as he ran a hand through his long spiky hair, honestly if he was anymore full of himself he could give Tala a run for his money.

**TBC**


	3. Smooth but Bitter

Hello all I finally finished my third installment of WITW hopefully it's ok I decided to finally bring Max into it lol anyway it's been five whole years since I started writing fanfiction so happy birthday to me yay!

**Disclaimer:** No I don't own anything but the story (and the song Max sings - yes I did write it)...though wouldn't it just be awesome!

**ATL 2: Whispers In The Wind  
Chapter 3** Smooth But Bitter

_You rob me of my own lies  
Where were you?  
Where were they?  
When I called out....no one replied  
Nobody answered my cries_

(Max)

It's 3pm and I still haven't gotten a call from Tala...I really should have told him I was going to practice after class today, oh well he should be able to find me if he can't work it out on his own.

"Hey Max are you going to start or what damn it we've only got twenty more minutes in here so hurry up you slow fucker!" ah Rick as eloquent as ever I see, and he wonders why no one wants to date the drummer.

I picked up the mike that had slipped out of my hand "Ok ok just shut the hell up Ricky, start from the top Enrique then two beats after Rick you come in got it ok" god I love it when I get the chance to order people around.

I closed my eyes as I started to sing the first verse just as Raul came in on bass _**"Oh I can't think...I can't think...Is there nothing in this drink? My vision is blurring...As I feel myself sink...To the ground...I feel you behind me...In a blink"** _ahh finally after three takes they're starting to get their timing down right, if we keep on going this good we might just had a chance at being ready for the Tokyo Battle of the Bands yet, I count the beats in my head and right on time Claude enters on keyboard in time for the chorus **_"Come on my boys lets have some fun...Come on my girls lets find some love...Under this midnight sun"_**.

But I can feel something's going to get messed up eventually; I just know Ricks going to get ahead of everyone else - he's such an impatient asshole sometimes... well most of the time but come on it just had to be right when I'm in the middle of the second verse_ "**Don't hold back...Don't just slip back...Into nothing...I may be sad...But at least I'm feeling something...-".**_

I suddenly stop and turn around Rick's getting out of time again "Stop everyone! - Rick will you goddamn slow the hell down" I yelled and ran my hand through my hair.

"Screw that, you losers should just fucking speed up" the idiot argued, if he keeps this up I'll just have to kick him out of the band and find another drummer, I sighed.

"Just shut the hell up Rick, the last time I saw the music charts singers have a lot better chances going solo than drummers so either you shut up and do what I tell you or go home ok" I put forward my ultimatum.

"Wow Max you really have a way with words" someone said in the doorway to the hall.

I spun around quickly "TALA!" I cheered.

"So that's my name? I've been wondering why people had been addressing with it, I'd almost thought it was a greeting -" he said sarcastically only to be cut off as I pulled his head down and crushed my lips against his own.

"A little warning please next time Maxie" Tala gasped as he clutched his chest out of breath.

"Well sorry...you are my boyfriend last time I checked and I haven't seen you since yesterday afternoon, can't I be a little concerned" I argued, go he looks tired and the dark circles under his eyes stand out even more against his lily white complexion damn it "So how much sleep did you get? I'm guessing you slept at your desk again? My poor poor Tala-chan"

"Yeah yeah about 5 hours...I know I know I'll sleep more tonight now that this Issues been printed" he whispered rubbing his temple.

"Hello?" a young woman asked a hand running boredly through her brown and orange hair "I'm here for Raul"

"Yeah hi yeah we're calling it a day" ok I was babbling...even though I'm happy with Tala at the moment I can still get nervous around pretty girls and she's a grade super model pretty...not that I drooling over her or anything no sirree nope not at all...ok I'm fooling no one I'm mentally undressing her right now, so sue me I'm a guy we have needs, not that Tala's not pretty especially naked ok I'll stop now.

"Stop drooling Maxie or you'll start choking" Tala whispered in my ear ARGH! he can read my thoughts bad Tala you thought stealer you! noooo my face is bright red I know my cheeks are burning with embarrassment!

**TBC**


End file.
